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Five Ways To Make Collecting Payments at Your Child Care Center Easier

Posted on April 6, 2015

Collecting payments from parents at your childcare center or preschool can be a challenging and time-consuming task. Here are some simple things you can do to help make this job easier.

Set up parents to pay by automated payment. This is a great way to simplify the task of collecting payment from parents. Payment processing software will enable you to charge parents by credit card or direct debit, and enable you to automate the process of collecting fees. Although there are fees charged for this service, the time and money saved often outweighs the fees.

Stay on top of overdue payments. An easy way to see the status of payers at your center is by using an aging report. The aging report in Sandbox Software enables you to view a list of all payers at your center who have an outstanding balance, and how far they are behind with their payment. Make sure that you notify parents as soon as they fall behind with their payments. The longer you wait, the harder it will be for the parents to get caught up, and the less likely you are to be paid in full.

Charge late fees. This is a great way to minimize your effort chasing overdue payments. No one likes wasting money having to pay unnecessary extra fees. Late fees provide incentive for parents to pay on time.

Make use of childcare software to help manage collecting your payments. Sandbox Child Care Software provides you with a quick and easy way to generate invoices for parents and track all of their payments. Sandbox Software even integrates with payment processing software, enabling you to charge parents through the software automatically when payment is due.

Charge parents a security deposit. This will minimize the risk of parents leaving your center with an outstanding balance that will never get paid. Sandbox Software helps you to track security deposits paid by parents, and makes it simple to apply the security deposit to their final invoice.